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Wednesday, October 14, 2015

October 1548-1595 A.D. William Whittaker—English Reformed Churchman, Professor, Author & Scholar: the "Ornament" of Cambridge University

October 1548-1595 A.D. William Whittaker—English Reformed Churchman,
Professor, Author & Scholar: the "Ornament" of Cambridge University

Wiki-offerings.

William Whitaker
(1548–1595) was a prominent Protestant, Reformed, Calvinistic and Anglican
Churchman, professor, author and theologian,. A luminary of his time. He was Master of St. John's College, Cambridge,
and a leading divine in the university in the
latter half of the sixteenth century. His uncle was also the famous Marian
exile (from the "burning times" of 1553–1558), Alexander Nowell, noted Dean of St. Paul's and catechetist, another Protestant, Reformed,
Calvinistic and Anglican divine.

Contents

Early life and education

He was born at Holme, near Burnley, Lancashire, in 1548, being the third son of Thomas Whitaker of that
place, by Elizabeth his wife, daughter of John Nowell, esq., of Read, and
sister of Alexander Nowell, dean of St Paul's."
After receiving the rudiments of learning at his native parish school, he was
sent by his uncle, Alexander Nowell, to St Paul's School in
London. (Alexander Nowell, a Marian exile, a fugitive from the "burning
times" of Anglo-Italian policies, 1553–1558, was also a Protestant,
Reformed and Anglican Churchman.) Whittaker thence proceeded to Cambridge,
where he matriculated as a pensioner of Trinity College on 4 October 1564.
He was subsequently elected a scholar on the same foundation, proceeded B.A. in
March 1568, and on 6 September 1569 was elected to a minor fellowship, and on
25 March 1571 to a major fellowship, at his college. In 1571 he commenced M.A.[1] Throughout his earlier career at the university he was assisted by his
uncle, who granted him leases, "freely and without fine," towards
defraying his expenses. Whitaker evinced his gratitude by dedicating to Nowell
a translation of the Book of Common Prayer
into Greek, and a like version of Nowell's own larger catechism from the Latin
into Greek.

Academic career

The marked ability with which he acquitted himself when
presiding as "father of the philosophy act" at an academic
commencement appears to have first brought him prominently into notice. He also
became known as an indefatigable student of the scriptures, the commentators,
and the schoolmen, and was very early in his
career singled out by John Whitgift, at that time master of Trinity, for marks of special favour. On 3
February 1578 he was installed canon of Norwich Cathedral, and in the same year was admitted to the degree of B.D., and incorporated
on 14 July at Oxford. In 1580 he was appointed by the crown to the regius professorship of
divinity, to which Elizabeth shortly after added the
chancellorship of St. Paul's, London, and from this time his position as the
champion of the teaching of the Protestant and Reformed Church of England
appears to have been definitely taken up. In 1582, on taking part in a disputation
at commencement, he took for his thesis, Pontifex Romanus est ille
Antichristus, quern futurum Scriptura prædixit, or, The Roman Pope is
that Antichrist which the Scriptures Foretold. His lectures, as professor,
afterwards published from shorthand notes taken by John Allenson, a fellow of
St. John's, were mainly directed towards refuting Roman Catholic theologians, especially Robert Bellarmine and Thomas Stapleton. He
also severely criticised the just-published Douay version of the New
Testament, thereby becoming involved in a controversy with William Rainolds.

His work, Disputatio de Sacra Scriptura contra hujus
temporis papistas, inprimis Robertum Bellarminum, or Disputations on
Holy Scripture, remains one of the premier volumes on the doctrine of
Scripture, often under-appreciated, little read, but standing like a titan
amongst the volumes of the English Reformed Churchman. One of the premier
issues that divided and still divides informed Protestants from Roman Catholics
is the question of the place of Scripture. Reformed Churchmmen like Whittaker,
then like now, declared that the Scriptures alone are the rule of faith and
practice whereas Roman Catholics assert co-equal veneration and
co-authoritative roles between Scripture, traditions held by the Church and
other unwritten issues. This debate is not new. William Whitaker forcefully and
brilliantly championed the Protestant, Reformed and Anglican position in 1588.
He deals with the number of canonical books, the authority of Scripture, the
perspicuity (clarity) of Scripture, the proper interpretation of Scripture, and
the perfection of Scripture against unwritten traditions.

On 28 February 1586 Whitaker, on the recommendation of
Whitgift and Burghley,
was appointed by the crown to the mastership of St. John's College. The appointment was, however, opposed by a majority of the fellows on the
ground of his supposed leanings towards puritanism. His rule as an administrator justified in almost equal measure the
appointment and its objectors. The college increased greatly in numbers and
reputation, but the puritan party gained ground considerably in the society.
Whitaker was a no less resolute opponent of Lutheranism than of Roman doctrine and ritual.

In the discharge of his ordinary duties as master his
assiduity and strict impartiality in distributing the rewards at his disposal
conciliated even those who demurred to his theological teaching, and Baker declares
that the members of the college were "all at last united in their
affection to their master," and that eventually "he had no enemies to
overcome."

In 1587 he was created D.D.; and in 1593, on the
mastership of Trinity College falling vacant by
the preferment of Dr. John Still to the bishopric of Bath and Wells, he
was an unsuccessful candidate for the post. In the following year he published
his De Authoritate Scripturæ, written in reply to Stapleton, prefixing
to it a dedication to Whitgift (18 April 1594), the latter affording a
noteworthy illustration of his personal relations with the primate, and also of
the Roman controversialist learning of that time. In May 1595 he was installed
canon of Canterbury; but his professorship, mastership, and canonry appear to have left him
still poor, and in a letter to Burghley, written about a fortnight before his
death, he complains pathetically at being so frequently passed over amid
"the great preferments of soe many." He may possibly have been
suffering from dejection at this time, owing to the disagreement with Whitgift
in which, in common with others of the Cambridge heads, he found himself
involved in connection with the prosecution of William Barrett. In November 1595 he was deputed, along with Humphrey Gower, president of Queens' College, to confer with the primate on the drawing
up of the Lambeth Articles. On
this occasion he appears to have pressed his Calvinistic views warmly, but
without success, and he returned to Cambridge fatigued and disappointed. He
fell ill and died on 4 December 1595.

In 1900 there were two portraits of Whitaker in the master's
lodge at St. John's College (one in the drawing-room, the other in the hall),
both bearing the words, "Dr. Whitaker, Mr. 1587," and one at the
Chetham Hospital and Library at Manchester. His portrait was engraved by William Marshall in Thomas Fuller's Holy State, 1642, and by John Payne. His epitaph, in Latin
hexameters on a marble tablet, has been placed on the north wall of the
interior of the transept of the college chapel.

His hopes of preferment were disappointed, probably
because he was twice married, and thus forfeited in some measure the favour of
Elizabeth. The maiden name of his first wife, who was sister-in-law to Laurence Chaderton,
was Culverwell; his second wife, who survived him, was the widow of Dudley Fenner. He had eight children: one of the sons, Alexander Whitaker, who
was educated at Trinity College, afterwards became known as the "Apostle
of Virginia." Alexander, bapitised Pocahontas. Another son who set his
eyes on America was, Jabez. He was one of the first planters in Jamestowne and
helped build a guest house to greet new families to Virginia.

No English divine of the sixteenth century surpassed
Whitaker in the estimation of his contemporaries. Ralph Churton justly styles him "the pride and ornament of Cambridge." Bellarmine so much admired his genius and attainments that he had his portrait
suspended in his study. Joseph Scaliger, Bishop Hall, and Isaac Casaubon alike speak of him in terms of almost unbounded admiration.

Works

The following is a list of Whitaker's published works,
those included in the edition of his theological treatises reprinted by Samuel
Crispin at Geneva in two volumes, folio, in 1610, being distinguished by an
asterisk:

Other works by Whitaker are extant in manuscript; the
Bodleian Library has Commentarii in Cantica, and Prælectiones in
priorem Epistolam ad Corinthios by him; Caius College, Theses: de fide
Davidis; de Prædestinatione; and St. John's College, Cambridge, a
treatise on ecclesiastical polity, which Baker thinks was probably from his
pen, although it leans somewhat to Erastianism.